Maximum Destruction (Max-D)
Maximum Destruction is a futuristic SUV Monster truck owned by Tom Meents. It was originally Goldberg before it became Team Meents and finally, Maximum Destruction. Maximum Destruction is one of the most popular trucks in Monster Jam, namely for commonly living up to its fitting name that best describes its freestyle performances, especially with Maximum Destruction creator Tom Meents behind the wheel. It has always been a fan-favorite to see this truck go up in racing against the other legendary monster truck Grave Digger, especially when piloted by Tom Meents and Dennis Anderson respectively. The two have been long time rivals in the monster truck industry, although the two are actually friends in real life. The truck's name and design is owned by FELD while Tom owns the chassis. There are presently five Maximum Destruction chassis, Tom Meent's regular chassis (the regular scheme), his stunt chassis (also a regular scheme, used for his double backflip and front flip attempts), Neil Elliot's chassis (the red scheme), Colton Eichelberger's chassis (the gold scheme), and Jared Eichelberger's chassis (the yellow scheme). History In 2001 Tom Meents ran his final year behind the wheel of Goldberg, and the final appearance for the truck would be in the video game Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction. It can be speculated that the name for the truck was inspired if not directly taken from the video game as it came out less than two years before the truck's debut. In 2003, Tom Meents introduced Maximum Destruction (A second Maximum Destruction monster truck was driven by Neil Elliott) as his new name taking over 2002's Team Meents machine. However, it won neither the racing, nor freestyle championship that year. In 2004, he tied with Madusa and El Toro Loco for the win in freestyle. For the encore, Tom Meents and Neil Elliot brought out both Maximum Destruction monster trucks to entertain the crowd. In 2005, Neil Elliot took a one year break from racing and Phil Foster replaced him. Maximum Destruction enjoyed a lot of success. Tom dedicated his World Finals run to his friend Deric Tredholm from Make-a-Wish who had passed away. For the encore, fans enjoyed a freestyle show put on by rivals Tom Meents and Dennis Anderson at the same time. That same year, he jumped over an old house before completely smashing it to pieces. In 2006, he had drive shaft problems and was seeded last in qualifying. He didn't win racing, but did something amazing for freestyle. He jumped clear over a second truck being driven by Neil Elliot, perched high atop the volcano obstacle, easily winning him the freestyle championship, and confirming once again his title as "King of Air". In 2007, he did not win at the World Finals; but, halfway around the world, at the show in Gothenburg, Sweden, he performed the first monster truck backflip (Technically, has he finished the rotation, but had aid from the ramp he drove off to roll him), and tied Grave Digger for the win. Travis Pastrana tried to recreate the move for his MTV show Nitro Circus, but landed flat on his roof, much to Tom's amusement. In 2008, at the World Finals, he got the pole position and made it to the final round, but broke down and couldn't make the call. He didn't win freestyle either, but brought out another Maximum Destruction truck for an amazing encore. In 2009, he won the racing championship. For the encore, he successfully completed a backflip before rolling over for the American audience. In 2010, he made it to the final round of Racing, but lost to Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger, which was also the first time they raced against each other in a World Finals championship race. In 2011, Tom ran a brand new chassis from the start of the season. He wound up having a large crash during a freestyle in Arlington, Texas. The whole front end was torn off, the motor blew, and both front shocks were ruined. Tom won Racing at World Finals 12 that year, taking out long-time rival Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter. In 2012, Tom won Racing again at World Finals XIII, taking out Damon Bradshaw in Monster Energy. Later that year, he unsuccessfully tried to complete the first double backflip during the Path of Destruction finale in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In 2013, the team celebrated its tenth anniversary with brand new body styles for all 3 drivers. Neil Elliott and Kreg Christensen received spiked bodies covered in chrome, while Tom received a body covered in orange LEDs. Tom won Freestyle at World Finals 14, and completed the first successful double backflip at the encore, while Neil Elliott, Kreg Christensen and Chuck Werner did their own backflips. In 2014, Christensen left the Max-D team to drive independently in Australia. His replacement was announced to be Morgan Kane.A t World Finals XV, the Max D truck got shut off in the Semi-Finals, which he then won in the redo of the race, but lost in the Finals, due to spinning in the turn, to Grave Digger the Legend being driven by Adam Anderson. In 2015, Morgan Kane begins driving Max-D for the #MoreMonsterJam Tour and Neil Elliot begins competing on the Fox Sports 1 Championship Series. Elliot and Kane would both win the respective tours, with Meents getting an invitation to World Finals 16. This is the first time three Max-D's are invited to the World Finals. For World Finals 16, Neil Elliot would drive a red Max-D and Morgan Kane would drive a golden Max-D. Later that year in East Rutherford, New Jersey on the 2015 Path of Destruction Tour, Tom completed the first Front Flip in the air with a monster truck, and got in the Guinness Book of World Records for landing it; he did another flip on the ground after landing on the rear tires. Tom also got another world record at Gillette stadium for the first ever double back flip and it landed clean. In 2016, Morgan Kane switched from Max D over to Team Grave Digger while Colton Eichelberger (Tom's stepson) switched over to Max D and will join his brother and Tom's other stepson Jared Eichelberger for both More Monster Jam tours. Colton would drive a brand new gold Max-D for West More Monster Jam, Jared drives a brand new yellow Max-D in the East More Monster Jam tour, and Neil will drive a red Max-D from the 2015 Monster Jam World Finals in the west coast. Meents would drive in the Fox Sports 1 Championship Series In the FS1 Series 2016 in Anaheim, CA, "Mike Wales", a former monster jam driver which passed away in 2016, was is written on the truck instead of the usual "Tom Meents" The team is constructing a new chassis for Tom to start driving in 2017. Much controversy arose after Maximum Destruction's freestyle encore at the Santa Clara Monster Jam show on April 9th 2016 when it was advertised that he would jump over six trucks (in an attempt to break a record of five at the Monster Jam World Finals 17 racing encore). Instead of actually jumping over six trucks, what actually happened was he jumped a ramp with three trucks on either side. Many fans criticized Monster Jam for false advertisement and claimed that the six truck record was invalid, since he only jumped the equivilant of three truck lengths (although vertical, it was still less than six trucks) and that he never actually jumped over them. Monster Jam later made a statement through their Instagram that the stunt was actually altered due to the track's muddy conditions due to rainy weather and that the stunt would be re-attempted at the East Rutherford show, where it would be sucessfully performed. Gallery Glendale 013016 Posocco (27).jpg|Candy Apple Red Max-D circa 2016 460f1f93-ccaf-4182-a398-06c4116c6def.jpg|Neil's red Max-D for World Finals 16 Glendale 100816 EvanPosocco-23.jpg|Candy Apple Red on a rear engined chassis in 2016 12509154_10153802413245833_1536623374480524436_n.jpg|Gold Max-D in Janurary 2016 12662616 10206164384688610 2140581275943694617 n.jpg|Gold Max-D February 2016 b54266c9-b252-4e7a-9b5f-29bb19b93054.jpg|Morgan's gold Max-D for World Finals 16 Maxresdefadddddddddddddult.jpg|Yellow Max-D DX 1228.jpg|Orange Max-D MaxD15.jpg|Max D in 2015 Maxdmmj.jpg|Max D in MoreMonsterJam Maxdspeedster.jpg|Max D Speedster in MoreMonsterJam Fdfsdfdsfs0.jpg|Maximum Destruction's original body on the stunt chassis Maxd atv.jpg|Max D ATV in MoreMonsterJam Maximum-Destruction.jpg|CRD Maximum Destruction in 2011 Maximumdestruction.jpg|Maximum Destruction in 2011-2012 Arlington2011.jpg|Maximum Destruction living to its name in Arlington 2011 Maximum-destruction.opof-35309-mid.jpg|Maximum Destruction 2010 MaxDBacklfip.jpg|Maximum Destruction mid the first public monster truck backflip attempt at WFX in 2009 MaxDArnhem.jpg|Maximum Destruction on a Patrick Chassis in Arnhem 2005 MaxD05.jpg|Maximum Destruction in 2005 Maximum Destruction Monster Truck.jpg|Circa 2004-2007 595.jpg|Maximum Destruction 2003 MaxD03.jpg|Maximum Destruction in its debut in 2003 MaxDRed.gif|Red Maximum Destruction die cast which never came to the real truck MJAT_cards_MaxD(1).jpg chromemaxd.JPG|Rare chrome Max-D released in 2003 TF-14-Bridge-Direct-Kastors-Korner35.jpg|Cancelled Maximum Destruction C3 Construction Monster Jam building set toy. maximumdestructionrender.jpg|Maximum Destruction's Digital Truck Render in Monster Jam: Path of Destruction. 2010 SE-MD Maximum Destruction (3).jpg|Whip Creamer from the 2010 Hot Wheels Monster Duo 2-Pack max-d 2016 gold.jpg|2016 gold Max-D original render max-d 2016 red.jpg|2016 red Max-D original render max-d 2016 yellow.jpg|2016 yellow Max-D original render Monster-Jam-Speedsters.jpg|Yellow Max-D speedster in the East Coast #MoreMonsterJam tour 1913689 10206149809050656 2809146597580781897 n.jpg 12472416_514256692116284_5068791164970254415_n.jpg|2016 Max-D toy IMG 4128.JPG|2016 Red Max-D toy Sacramento_012916_EricMeyers (12).jpg|Gold Max-D speedster in the 2016 #MoreMonsterJam West Coast tour Baltimore_022716_DeAngelis (8).jpg|Yellow max-D ATV in the 2016 #MoreMonsterJam East Coast Tour CouncilBluffs_010916_BrettMoist (22).jpg|Gold Max-D ATV in the 2016 #MoreMonsterJam West Coast Tour ment137c.jpg|Original render 2015_164_maxd.jpg 2015_124_maxd.jpg 8676458_orig.jpg 2361538182_47918d1474_b.jpg|Maximum Destruction motocycle s-l1600.jpg|2016 1:64 scale Max-D toy Category:Trucks Category:FELD Motorsports Category:Hot Wheels Trucks Category:Stunt Trucks Category:Monster Jam World Champions Category:Fox Sports 1 Point Series Champions Category:More Monster Jam Champions Category:Current Competing Trucks